16 Chapter 16.

Boom --

Hulk, who was standing against the current, was distracted for a moment. At that moment, he was kicked by Ryan's Mighty Steel Leg.

With a loud rumbling sound, the huge body suddenly flew out, crashing into the wall of the opposite building.

'God damn, that was hard!'

Although Ryan had accomplished the feat of kicking the Hulk, he wasn't completely unharmed.

He stumbled to his feet and felt the pain spreading from his toes. He didn't have to look down to know that his right foot was definitely swollen.

Compared with the previous cement stones, Hulk's body was undoubtedly tougher.

After all, that huge body could take on bullets.

[Reputation points from the Hulk +55]

[Reputation point from Bruce Banner +70]

[Reputation Points from Thaddeus Ross +45]

[Reputation points from soldier +0.05]

Although the process was a little hard, the harvest was undoubtedly quite gratifying, especially from the Hulk, who deserved to be one of the important members of The Avengers in the future. Attacking a legendary figure actually gained him a double portion of points; it was as surprising as suddenly winning the lottery.

As for the other, Thaddeus Ross, although his name was somewhat unfamiliar, it seems like he was the guy who was always after the Hulk, that General Ross.

Although, psychologically, Ryan would love to collect thousands of points from a hero with a legendary reputation like the Hulk, then open a [Golden Treasure Chest], and roam the Marvel world as he pleased... However, in reality, that one kick he used to attack the Hulk was more than difficult to pull off. Not to mention the fact that General Ross was watching intently from afar.

So, after a brief evaluation of the pros and cons, Ryan quite willingly chose to retreat.

On the helicopter, General Ross watched in silence as Ryan withdrew from the scene. As the sudden display of Hulk's superhuman jumping ability had made them too scared to descend from the air, they could only fix their eyes on Ryan's back.

A few minutes later, the armored vehicles arrived at the scene.

Carefully entering the building that Hulk had crashed into, all they found was a trail of rubble, but Hulk, the target, had disappeared.

Descending from the helicopter, General Ross looked at the empty ruins of the building and gave an expressionless order, "Search the nearby streets. He must have turned back into Banner."

In New York, it was easy to find a giant green monster, but it was undoubtedly difficult to find an ordinary human being like Banner. In particular, after several chases, Dr. Banner obviously had a fairly elaborate method of evading the military's pursuit.

In the middle of a foul-smelling alleyway, a ragged vagrant is huddled in a corner. His expression was blank as he gazed at the pedestrians passing through the streets. He looked desensitized, as if he was merely another down-and-out homeless man crushed by reality on the streets of New York. But deep down, he was constantly alert to what was going on around him.

Watching a few men walking away from the street at a neat and orderly pace, with obvious military features, Banner breathed a small sigh of relief and leaned against the wall, ignoring the stench that surrounded him, quietly reflecting on what had happened before.

After turning into the Hulk, his memory had always been very vague, and the information about the outside world had always been disconnected and out of shape.

The last memory recovered this time was only a vague memory of the Hulk being kicked away, flying.

'Who on earth had the power to kick the Hulk?'

　　...

"Hmm."

In the hospital ward, Emil woke up from a coma.

"Are you awake, soldier?"

Emil subconsciously tried to turn his head to look around, but found that he couldn't move his body any further, not even with the simplest of head turns.

"Don't try, soldier." General Ross stepped forward and entered Emil's sights. Looking at the veteran who was lying on the hospital bed with his entire body wrapped in bandages, the General said, "You've suffered serious injuries. More than half of your bones had shattered, and you're temporarily paralyzed. Even if you heal in the future, you're destined to live with crutches for the rest of your life. You won't be able to live like a normal person, and you wouldn't even be able to lift slightly heavy things."

"So, I won't be able to return to the battlefield, Sir?" "

The harsh reality of the situation destroyed Emil's will to live. He opened his eyes wide but couldn't stop the tears from falling at the corners of his eyes. He asked in a hoarse voice, using the only remaining part of his body that could move, his mouth.

"In theory, that should be the case."

'In theory?!'

With a strong will to live, Emil instantly sensed the meaning in General Ross's words. His eyes widened as he breathed heavily. He anxiously asked, "Sir, you mean there's a chance I can still be saved from this?"

General Ross stood tall, taking in the expression on Emil's face. After years of research by the military, while they still couldn't replicate the Super Soldier Serum as perfectly as it was used during the initial Captain America project, they had surmised a way to maximize its effects.

Strong emotions were able to push the enhancing effects of the serum.

"Although, there's no 100% guarantee, at least it's an option."

"Have you decided yet?"

"When I'm already like this, do I have a choice?" Emil rolled his eyes to look at the bandages on his body and bitterly smiled back.

If he had known that he would end up like this, he would have chosen to die on the battlefield.

Seeing that, General Ross nodded. He then took out a small box from his pocket, took out a syringe containing dark blue turbid liquid from it, and then injected it into Emil's body.

Ah --

　　...

[Reputation points from Bruce Banner +60]

[Reputation points from Emil Blonsky +40]

'What happened?'

At home, Ryan looked at the prompts that suddenly appeared in front of him, and looked baffled.

He didn't do anything at all. How come he suddenly got reputation points?

However, when he retraced his steps a bit, getting reputation points from Banner was a little understandable.

'But Emil? Who's that again?'

Frowning, Ryan struggled to think for a moment before finally giving up.

'Well, who cares what all the fuss is about? Getting reputation points is a good thing anyway.'

Ryan looked up and glanced at the 560 reputation points displayed on the data panel, increasingly feeling that his decision earlier was the correct one. It had only been a short time since he had saved up half of the reputation points he needed to redeem the [Black Iron Treasure Chest]. As people said, high risk, high return.

...

-:Binge:-

Don't forget to vote with your power stones

Bonus chapter upon reaching 300 power stones!

...

release rate: 2ch/d or 2000 words per day from tomorrow :)